HootSuite’s sweet deal

Getting $20 million from pension fund

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It’s a multi-million-dollar payday for some of the employees of a small Vancouver software developer.

They’re the people behind HootSuite, a dashboard program that manages multiple social media services on a single screen. They’re getting $20 million from the venture-capital unit of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS).

The big pension fund is taking a stake in HootSuite by purchasing private stock from existing shareholders. HootSuite had 25 employees last year and now has 140. It’s on-track to reach 240 employees this year.

Other information about the OMERS investment is scarce; they’re not saying what percentage of HootSuite is involved, which would be a way to value the whole company.

They’re also not saying how many employees are selling their private shares to OMERS, if CEO Ryan Holmes has sold part of his stake, or if some of the sellers were earlier investors in HootSuite.

HootSuite helps customers such as PepsiCo and the NBA with their social media marketing campaigns. In just over three years, it has grown to nearly four million users.